The Former "Spirit of Waco" A-26 has a new home!

[CAPFlyer]

gotta love those black and red airplanes

She won't be Black & Red for long though...

Congrats on getting her home. Can't wait to see the progress on the final work and then the repaint. Seems to be a recent trend with the CAF, planes getting fresh paint, even if just a repaint of the existing scheme. I like it.

[LadyO2Pilot]

The "re-paint" appears to be on indefinite hold. There will be a change to the red flash, probably in near future; however, the complete paint scheme change will not occur as quickly as originally thought at this time. CAP.....if you would like to come out a help spruce up what we've got right now, come on over

[mustangdriver]

Great job to all of those involved!!

[K5DH]

Congratulations to the entire CAF Invader Squadron crew! I wish I could have been there for the arrival, but She Who Must Be Obeyed had other plans for me. I love the weathered paint. It makes the plane look really authentic!

[Obergrafeter]

Glad to see that you all have the "proper" American Flag displayed. Not many of them around.

[CAPFlyer]

The "re-paint" appears to be on indefinite hold. There will be a change to the red flash, probably in near future; however, the complete paint scheme change will not occur as quickly as originally thought at this time. CAP.....if you would like to come out a help spruce up what we've got right now, come on over

I certainly hope to find time to come help, but working nights on the weekends doesn't help much. I'm hoping for a post change and maybe getting a weekend day off or the hours to be a little more condusive to do more than work and sleep.

[Alan Brooks]

Steve! Nice shots, esp the overhead.............. More?
Karen..... I thought you were going to fly a round robin..... you know, to have a two ship element of those "red and black" twin engined beauties!

alan



[/quote]

[LadyO2Pilot]

Karen..... I thought you were going to fly a round robin..... you know, to have a two ship element of those "red and black" twin engined beauties!

Plans changed at the last minute almost...well late Sat. evening..... with Al flying up from Houston Sun. in his plane with others who could take over PIC duties when he got into A-26. I almost went over to BKD just to fly back with the 26 but changed mind (probably way way back...LOL). That way I got to celebrate with adult beverages with the crew when Return to Base was complete

[steve dickey]

Sorry Al just those two, unless you want to see what she looked like hunkered down during our dust storm couple weeks ago!?

[Ztex]

Tune in to Warbird Radio.com tonight, 8PM (Eastern) for Invader Squadron talk!
Paul Lager will be with us at the top of the hour!

www.warbirdradio.com

[CrewDawg]

I've been slacking off and not posting any updates lately, maybe because I've been so busy working on the airplane. Since the airplane arrived in Fort Worth, we've been very busy. I've been going through the rigging of the ailerons since we had a slight wing RH wing heavy condition on the flight home. I'd like to meet the Douglas engineer who decided that the only access you need to get to the LH aileron trim drum is by removing the landing light and sticking your arm in the hole elbow deep! What a pain in the A$$!!!! I finally got all of that figured out, now just waiting on the next flight to see how she flies. Meanwhile other members of the Invader Maintainers, have been working on replacing some crazed and cracked cabin windows, cleaning up the interior and fixing some other minor squawks. We have some gear issues to work out, a leaky hose on the LH gear actuator, the emergency gear release cables are frayed, and the selector valve is leaking also. That's next on the list. I put jacks under her last Sunday, so we can start on the gear issues this Wednsday night when we will have a work party out working on her. Once the gear issues are taken care of we just have to replace the LH fuel selector valve which sometime decides to leak, and other times not, so we're just going to replace it so we dont' have to worry about those pesky fuel leaks in the engine nacelles.

We have 17 working days (weekends and Wednsday nights), before our first air show is scheduled, which is Barskdale AFB, then we have Dyess AFB, followed by Temple.....no pressure whatsoever on the Invader Maintainers!

Just so nobody is surprised when you see it, the plane is now named "Texas Special" after an 8th Bomb Squadron A-26 that served in Korea. We changed the name from "Hoodle Head" primarily for marketing reasons. When you get right down to it, you need to be able to market and raise money to keep these machines flying. We feel that we can do that better with the name "Texas Special". We are still going to pay tribute to Capt. Walmsley the 8th B.S. MOH recipient, his name will appear below the pilot's canopy and we will have a sign board telling his story. We hope to get the red parts painted yellow (8th B.S. colors) ASAP, but it may not happen before the first couple of shows. The name will of course be accompanied by an appropriately proportioned pin-up girl, the exact design is still in draft. We are fortunate to have an artist in our squadron who actually did some restoration work on the original "Spririt of Waco" Indian Princess many moons ago.

I know that there are many opinions on the naming of an airplane, believe me many were expressed by the squadron membership, and all have merit. I dont want to turn this thread into another debate on the subject. If anyone wants to debate it, please start your own separate thread.

We are always looking for new members and espeically for mechanics, if anyone is interested, PM or email me. I'll try to remember to take some pictures Wednsday night and post them. I know, I'm a slacker....

[LadyO2Pilot]

You really are a SLACKER.....now start doing more !!!!

For everyone else that doesn't understand sarcasm...I'M KIDDING. Bill is doing a great job herding all us cats that he's calling Maintainers. But he docked my pay due to me not being able to come this Wed night......because....surprise I have to get my own very neglected plane ready for a Command Performance flight to an event at DFW the next day. Imagine that.

I'll repeat his sentiments, come join in the fun with us!!

[CAPFlyer]

Bill, glad to hear things are moving forward and I totally understand the name change. I think most will have an easier time understanding since no paint had been applied or history established with that plane and that name. I think that keeping it with the 8th and Korea helps as well since it doesn't change much in the scheme.

[CrewDawg]

Work is coming along nicely on "Texas Special", here are a few pictures from last Wedensday night's work party. As I said, it was night and the hangar does not have the greatest lighting.

This is a temporary decal with the new name, we're currently working on some permanent nose art.


We replaced the side cabin windows, here's Dan sealing them.


If you guess what these are there's a free pony in it for you!

What are the louvered panels for in the aft end of the LH gear well?


This one doesn't need hint


RH gun door, interesting data plate between the hinges....


Interesting since 7140 was modified by Grand Central, before On-Mark even existed!


LH engine that has about 10 hours on it.


Do you have any neighbors on your block who still have thier Christmas lights up? We do....a certain K model...

[hahnej]

APU in the aft end of the nacelle.